Shame on us all

I very rarely comment on politics. I am by nature a non-political person. I tend to see both sides of most arguments, and there are merits and faults with any position in any political debate. Extremism is always wrong. Beyond that, who is right is mostly a matter of your tribal, partisan allegiances.

There is no possible right in the brutal kick in the teeth delivered to young people, from all but the most privileged backgrounds, by todays disgraceful decision to force £28,000 of debt on to the shoulders of every student.

There are many arguments for and against this decision. They are all fatuous. Because at the absolute bottom line, thousands of hard working and intelligent young people from ordinary backgrounds were told today that they simply aren’t worth investing in. That however well they do at school, they will not be able to get a university education unless they accept the heavy burden and very real risk of a £28,000 debt. Anyone who does not understand the terror that this level of debt induces in anyone from an ordinary background is simply displaying a staggering level of ignorance.

The message this decision sends young people from ordinary backgrounds is that they should know their place. Society has a hierarchy, and really, if you seek to rise above your station you will have to pay the price. Every adult in this country should hang their head in shame for allowing the step by step erosion of our principles that has brought us to such depths.

Young people are rightfully angry about this. They are right to burn and smash and riot in our streets. We really deserve no less.

There is a place for destructive protest against property. When the one part of society demonstrates utter disregard for another, we reach that place. The ultimate measure will only be seen in retrospect, but I fear that a generation from now we will identify this moment as the collapse of social mobility in the UK.

We’d better get used to riots as this government engineers a massive transfer of our social wealth away from the poor and the working class. All under cover of ‘tackling the crisis.’ Meanwhile I hear banker’s’ pay is on the rise again …